Video: Leeds Festival fans braced for mudbaths

Now in its 13th year, the festival is one of the premier events in the music industry’s calendar, along with its sister event in Reading.

Approximately 75,000 music fans, along with hundreds of staff, volunteers and technicians, will be on the site for the festival which is headlined by the Cure, Kasabian and the Foo Fighters who top the bill tonight.

The riots and anti-social behaviour which once blighted the festival in previous years have long been consigned to history and all festival-goers need fear this year will be the occasional rain shower.

Gemma Plumb, from the MeteoGroup weather organisation, said: “We could see a few showers this afternoon and Saturday is also looking like a very wet day.

“Sunday should be drier but there is still a risk of some showers, especially in the morning.”

The main campsites opened for business early yesterday and special traffic arrangements were put in place by event organiser Festival Republic to try to prevent a repeat of the road queues that have dogged the run-up to previous festivals.

The Highways Agency said the A1(M) – one of the key routes for Bramham Park-bound traffic – was “flowing freely” yesterday afternoon.

There were reports, however, of buses being delayed by up to 30 minutes because of festival traffic in the Cross Gates and Seacroft areas.

Police, meanwhile, are stepping up their presence in communities around the festival site.

Wetherby Police’s Insp Paul Dwyer said: “As festival visitors arrive we will deploy extra patrol officers into the surrounding villages each day and night.

“They support our normal neighbourhood policing and normal village life whilst also being on hand to work alongside other agencies at the festival if needed.”

Weather worries appear to have led some festival-goers to consider ditching their tents in favour of more comfortable accommodation. One travel website says internet searches for hotels in Leeds are up 102 per cent this month.

Kate Hopcraft, from Hotels.com, said: “It seems that Brits are more concerned about staying dry and clean this year than embracing the mud.”

Meanwhile efforts are being made to make this year’s Leeds Festival the greenest in its history.

A total of 60 young people from all around Europe will see them doing everything from helping collect empty drinks cans for recycling to salvaging leftover camping equipment at the end of the festival which will in turn be passed on to new users.

Many young people visiting music festivals choose to leave their tents, uneaten food and camping equipment behind rather than pack it up and take it home.

The scale of the task is daunting, with organisers of the Leeds Festival claiming to have salvaged around 40 tonnes of camping gear last year.

Raphaël Harfaux, from the Everything is Possible organisation which is organising the event’s huge logistical operation, told the Yorkshire Post some of the leftover food and camping equipment would go to charities such as the St George’s Crypt homeless shelter in Leeds.

The leftover tents will be available to buy on Wednesday and Thursday next week for a small donation, with the money raised then be used to help develop international projects for young people in the UK and abroad.

The volunteers, who arrived on the site on Tuesday will be based there until next week as they assist with the clean-up. They will work in shifts and when not on duty they are free enjoy the festival and the chance to discover the British culture.

Mr Harfaux said the volunteers had already paid a visit to York and Leeds to see as much of Yorkshire as possible before the festival began. The volunteering project is supported by the British Council and the Youth in Action programme of the European Union.

Clair Brown, co-founder of Everything is Possible, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to give to young people who couldn’t normally access this kind of event the chance to see their favourite bands while helping the local community and environment. A lot of organisations working with young people or the homeless, for example, could really make use of this equipment.”

The Leeds Festival will also provide a platform for up-and-coming young bands from Yorkshire such as Black Moth, Hawk Eyes and Post War Glamour Girls, with established regional acts such as Leeds’s Kaiser Chiefs, Wakefield’s the Cribs and Leeds Pulled Apart by Horses all set to play over the three-day weekend.